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Mobile phones are the fastest developing products in Korea's IT industry, with companies constantly trying to add new features to their handsets, outdo each other with more innovative functions, ring tones and games, and distance themselves from anachronistic last-generation models.
Now the beefed-up, super-sized portable telecoms of the 21st century are starting to worry about their health - or more accurately, consumers' health.
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Creative services for mobile phone users are being introduced on an almost daily basis. KTF¡¯s new eyesight test service uses LCD images to test for colorblindness.
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As if there weren't enough gadgets, gizmos and mobile games flying about, the "well-being fad" (spurred by an increasingly health-conscious Korean society) has now found its way into the cellular phone market, with a "well-being movement" predicted for 2005.
SK Telecom is planning to release a "mobile health-care phone." The model will be a total health package that can measure people's blood-sugar and stress levels, as well as their percentage of body fat.
Three types of batteries include devices for each feature. Users can not only check their health status, but also receive the proper treatment. For example, a diabetic user can check her blood-sugar level, the phone will send the data to an online network center via a wireless Internet service, which will then issue the personalized treatment according to her needs.
Tests to confirm blood alcohol levels will also be made available on cell phones. KTF will start a service in January which informs users of their likely alcohol level as calculated from a test that measures the speed of their reactions.
Celebrity fitness trainers will make virtual visits to your handset. Mobile-phone users can receive the very training program that celebrities have been getting. SK Telecom will start a "fitness diary" service that provides a training program by a celebrity trainer and record the outcome. A level-based training schedule is rotated on a monthly basis, and the weekly results are analyzed by experts.
It is a portable multi-purpose device. Now you don't have to be fluent in another language to talk to a foreigner - as long as you have your mobile.
SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom are planning to offer translation services from February. This will enable Korean words to be rapidly converted into either English, Japanese or Chinese and projected on the LCD screen. Features that aid pronunciation are expected to facilitate basic communications.
Starting from the second half of 2005, mobile-phone users can talk to a group of people simultaneously as if they were using a walkie-talkie. KTF and LG Telecom are planning to open Push to Talk (PTT) services which enable customers with these handsets use them as they would walkie-talkies.
(englishnews@chsoun.com )
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